| Healthy Communities |
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Background
 In 2006 I met a young volunteer by the name of Brian. Brain brought incredible insight and creative talent to our organization for a three month period through the Katimavik Program. As part of his work with us he produced a written definition of a healthy community based on his own ideas and observations. He turned that definition into the concept of a healthy communities guide. His vision of the project before leaving was to use the earth and rainbows as a graphical tool to promote a vision of a healthy community.Before leaving us Brian enlisted the talents and support of CAP Youth Interns Sydnie, Amy, Nick and Tyler to complete the vision. After he moved on to his next community Sydnie took the lead on the artistic side of the vision. Then Marie Joelle joined us just in time for Sydnie to pass the torch. It was Marie Joelle who completed the original piece of art work. This became the basis of our next community volunteer appreciation event with tables decorated in part with recipes for a healthy community. After Marie Joelle left we met Sam who then worked with another CAP YI Intern Tiara to turn the image into a 12 foot tall mural. A Partnership between ValleyLinks, the Comox Valley Arts Council and Courtenay Recreation made this possible. It was an exciting project and the mural still adorns a wall at the local youth centre for all to see, the earth image became a full globe and the ice cap hosts a polar bear to symbolize the importance of environmental care of our planet.  Next the poster and mural became a guide for youth looking to take action on areas of interest to them in our community. The first project identified by the CAP Youth Interns and volunteers was emergency preparedness awareness and this was taken on in partnership with the Comox Recreation Commission. The interns involved in this phase of the project were Tiara, Tyler, Sarah, and Jennifer in addition Katimavik Volunteers Sam and Thomas had major roles. They used their existing skills and learned new skills to create an online and poster campaign to increase emergency preparedness awareness throughout the Vancouver Island Region.  Our most recent Katimavik Volunteer Scott created the attached project; Colour Your Community a colouring book and story. It is designed to encourage awareness of a Healthy Community while encouraging discussion between generations on the things they can choose to do to contribute. With support from Emma and a pretty steep learning curve this phase of the project reached completion in three short months. Our CAP Youth Interns were instrumental in mentoring and training the youth volunteers who needed to learn many technical skills to develop, plan, layout and eventually publish this work.To their credit this work is getting recognition from across Canada, it is being recognized as a guide to civic literacy and as a tool for intergenerational community engagement. Recently 2010 Legacies now facilitator, Iha Farquhar recognized this little book as a key tool for teaching and engaging young people, she has been presenting the book to school districts all over British Columbia and soon it will be highlighted on the Legacies Now, Heroes Live Here Website. So far this 3 year project has been a journey of empowerment, a labor of love and in a time of great concern for our world a glimmer of light and, I hope, a sneak peak at our future leaders’ visions. Product OrderingDownload a Demo of the Colouring Book here - English
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